


Symbiotic Circumstances

by SymBrosChoas05



Category: Marvel, Venom (Comics), Venom (Movie 2018)
Genre: Bisexual Eddie Brock, Carlton Drake No Longer Runs Life Foundation, Carlton Drake Still Hates Eddie, Carnage Is The “Little Shit”, Cletus Kasady Lives On Eddie’s Couch, Human Disaster Eddie Brock, I would add more tags but I don’t want to spoil anything, Inspired by Venom (Movie 2018), Little Bit Of Fluff?? (Idk), Multi, POV Multiple, Post-Venom (Movie 2018), Riot Is A Bit Of A Bitch, Riot Still Hates Venom, Symbiotes - Freeform, Three dudes sharing an apartment five feet apart cause their not gay (or are they??), Venom Likes Annoys Everyone
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-14
Updated: 2021-03-05
Packaged: 2021-03-14 11:20:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 7,152
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29417811
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SymBrosChoas05/pseuds/SymBrosChoas05
Summary: Three people sharing an apartment, how bad can it be right?Well for Eddie Brock, Carlton Drake, Cletus Kasady, and a bunch of Symbiotes that can prove to be a bit of a problem. Besides the only reason their sharing in the first place is to benefit off of each other (well mainly Eddie). And also live out semi-normal lives.But something strange is going on in the city of San Francisco. Property damages, dead bodies piling, and militant personnel at every corner. And everything somehow leads back to them. It’s time for the hosts and the Symbiotes to do their least favorite thing, working together. But they might also need the help of close friends and family.
Relationships: Carlton Drake/Riot Symbiote, Carnage Symbiote/Cletus Kasady, Eddie Brock/Venom Symbiote
Comments: 27
Kudos: 14





	1. Eddie/Venom POV

**Author's Note:**

> I really just made this story because I was bored but I’m curious to see what everyone else thinks. Also this isn’t really an “exciting” chapter, mainly just banter (but if I do continue it’ll get more exciting I promise). Also this is my first story (well chapter) so comments are highly appreciated!
> 
> Ok imma stop pestering you now, enjoy!

Eddie Brock trudged up the last of the stairs that lead to his apartment room floor. When he made it to the hallway Eddie pulled out his keys and twirled them around a bit before approaching the door. The keys made light clanging sounds as they hit together.

**Eddie** , Venom hissed inside his head, making him stop in place, the key barely touching the lock. **Someone is inside.**

“Wanna bet who”?

**“Sure, but your gonna owe me some tater tots”**

“We’ll see...” Eddie gently shoved the key into the lock and turned. The door creaked softly as Eddie pushed it and peered inside. Sure enough there was a human-like lump on his couch. Eddie walked over even though he knew who it was, but you never know considering who he had to share an apartment with.

Eddie made his way to the couch chuckled. Sure enough, Cletus Kasady was passed out on his couch. It made Eddie think about how even though Cletus was a serial killer, he seemed to sleep peacefully. Which was even more creepy. Cletus had his Symbiote Carnage (Venom’s son) wrapped around his arms and torso like a shiny, red and black symbiotic Snuggie. Eddie leaned down and picked up a blanket that had fallen off of the couch and lightly tossed it over Cletus. As Eddie walked around the couch he moved to the end were Cletus’ head was at and purposely ruffled his hair. Cletus made a low growling noise, similar to a dogs, and went back to sleep.

**“Ahem, I believe you owe me tater tots”**. Venom said in a mater-of-fact manner. Venom’s head was floating and hovering inches away from Eddie’s face.Strange black, vine like tendrils that connected to Venom’s head and Eddie’s shoulder floated as well.

“Yeah nice try V, but I know you guessed two people not one”. Eddie replied smugly, he was sure this time we would avoid late night tater tots just to please Venom.

**“Yes, and that second _person_ is here”.**

Eddie was about to ask what Venom had meant when the door suddenly unlocked behind him. Eddie caught a small scent of expensive cologne and turned to see a man wearing a dark grey suit with a black tie and little shiny, green and white pin. The pin had two hexagons, one big and one small. The man was very punctual, not a hair out of place, no loose threads from his clothes. A pure representation of a ‘perfect’ man, except he looked absolutely drained.

“Hey Carlton,” Eddie greeted. Carlton Drake dropped his brief case by the door and tiredly made his way over to one of the bar stools. Eddie grabbed a glass from one of the upper cabinets and poured some water from the fridges dispenser.

“You’re home a bit early,” Eddie stated. He glanced at his phone to check the time real quick. Eleven thirty-five, technically about five minutes early.

Carlton had already finished his glass of water (thanks to his Symbiote Riot, Venom’s leader, aka the dude that literally almost blew Venom to oblivion). He gently set the glass down and looked Eddie directly in the eye.

“These legal cases are extremely getting on my nerves,” Carlton groaned, he placed his fingers on his temples like he was trying to soothe some sort of headache.

“Hm, can’t imagine why,” Eddie mumbled. He grabbed the glass from Carlton across the table and and put into the sink.

“Don’t you dare start again Brock, I can’t deal with your bullshit right now,” Carlton made a growling noise, it was a odd mix of alien and human, which meant that Riot was a bit irritated too.

“Carlton I’m teasing, besides I’m too tired to fight about this again.” That was a bit of lie. Eddie could pointlessly argue for hours on who was the real bad guy, but those arguments always ended with snarling teeth, something expensive being broken, and quite possibly and ugly street fight with two massive aliens while the smaller one just watches and laughs.

**“Eddiiieeee our tater tots,”** Venom growled. Venom was starting to get impatient with him. Black, shiny ooze started curling around Eddie’s arms, almost consuming his arms.

“I’ll get there, I’ll get there,” Eddie replied, he shifted towards the oven and turned the settings on. The oven made a few beeping noises and heated on.

**“Not quick enough!”** Venom had suddenly completely taken over Eddie. Venomwas tall and muscular. Venom was black colored with white-silver veins running along his shoulders and torso. He was taking up the space between the table and the kitchen. Venom’s head almost hit the ceiling so he had to hunch down a bit. It was uncomfortable but he could deal with it.

“Venom move, I’ll deal with it. You’ll just end up breaking something,” Carlton sighed. He ushered Venom out of the kitchen and took over the tater tot situation. Venom stalked over to the couch and gently moved the small coffee table so he could sit. He purposely wanted to sit directly in front of Cletus just to see how long it would take before he could annoy him.

**“Cleettuusssss”** Venom hissed, Venom lightly poked Cletus’ shoulder with one of his clawed fingers. Venom poked him again, this time Cletus rolled over to his side, facing away from Venom.

**“Aww Cletus don’t ignore meeee,”** Venom purred. He leaned down and stared nudging Cletus’ shoulder. His teeth lightly brushed Cletus’ black t-shirt sleeve. Carnage started covering Cletus’ body and whipped around facing Venom.

**“Wadda want dad, I’m is trying to sleep”** Carnage growled. His white, sharp shaped eyes squinting at his dad. His mouth was sharp and pointed which was also his teeth. His face was mostly black, with little black stripes on top of his face. Carnage was about the same size as Cletus, but a bit taller. Carnage had long black, vein like stripes along his red body. He was also a bit buff but slim, having the build of an average muscular male. But like many other Symbiotes, Carnage could still hit hard.

**“We just wanted to say hi,”** Venom smiled, his sharp yellow and white teeth showing. **“Cletus was asleep and you were busy cuddling him.”**

**“I WASN’T CUDDLING HIM! I WAS JUST KEEPING HIM WARM!”** Carnage commented, he huffed and tossed the blanket over his head and went back to lying down.

**“Carnage...”** Venom purred, nudging his shoulder again. **“We-”**

“Shit!” Carnage sat up looking even more annoyed and Venom turned his head. They both looked over and saw Carlton dumping a tray of burnt tater tots into the garbage can. Venom made a displeased low growl see his food was both burnt and being tossed out.

“You know what, I give up.” Carlton tossed the empty tray into the sink, he was pretty irritated. “I’m going to regret saying this but do you just want to hunt tonight?”

Venom and Carnage both chirped up. Carlton and Riot didn’t like hunting unless it was absolutely necessary, Cletus and Carnage liked it just for fun, and Eddie and Venom did it just for food and to get there minds off of something.

Venom thought about it for a moment **“what kind of hunting?”** Usually when Carlton or Riot said hunting they meant animals, while Venom preferred both animals and humans. At least the “bad ones” that this.

“Whatever yo **u want to do,”** Riot had completely covered Carlton by the end of his sentence. Riot was also tall and muscular (a little more than Venom) but was silver with red veins. Riot was also sharper looking, with a pointed head (kinda like Kermit the Frog’s), narrow eyes, and bulky chest. He also sometimes had spikes along his shoulders, they would either be curled slightly or nice and straight.

**“Aww thanks honey”** Venom said kindly and smugly. Riot hated it when Venom used human pet names on him. They weren’t in a relationship, there would be no way in hell the two would be together. But Venom just liked to tease Riot a lot.

Riot snarled making a ‘are-you-forgetting-who-you’re-talking-to’ face. Carnage just smirked, he thought it was funny sometimes, seeing Riots face get all scrunched up and snarly. But he too would get annoyed at some point.

**“Are we going or are you two just going to stare at each other and not blink”** Carnage had gotten up and was already at the window, ready to open it. The window led to the fire escape outside, but the Symbiotes didn’t really need the fire escape. All they had to do was reach their arms over to the roof and swing themselves over.

**“If Venom is done being a nuisance, then yes,”** Riot answered as Carnage stepped out of the window.

**“If Riot is done being a bitch, then yes,”** Venom answered back. He heard Riot snarl at him again as he morphed his body to fit through the window and make it outside. Venom did the same thing, shifting his body to squeeze through then he shoot a tendril form his arm to latch onto the edge of the root top and swung himself over. It made the Symbiotes happy to have extremely easy access to the roof. Even though they could easily scale a building within seconds, sometimes the easy route was more convenient.

Venom breathed in the cool, midnight air. The sky was a bit cloudy and stars barely shined (which was due to the large amounts of CO2 that Venom had discovered when he came to Earth) but the moon was full and glowed brightly. The lights of buildings and street lights still illuminated the rest San Francisco, which seemed a bit sleepless even though it was late for humans.

**“Which way?”** Carnage was ready to go, if Venom or Riot didn’t come up with a quick answer then Carnage would just run off and cause the two of them to chase after the red Symbiote.

**“Right!”** Venom responded quickly leaping from the apartment building to the building next to them. He could hear Riot roaring them from behind and Carnagegaining up on him. Tonight was going to be good, Venom could fell it in his cells. And he was sure the others could too.

But here was also something bothering him, like they might end up getting more than they bargained for.


	2. Cletus/Carnage POV

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m back baby! Time to see Carnage engage in more “little shit” energy. Also I noticed that in the last chapter I only used he pronouns instead of he and SHE. Gonna fix that mistake with this chapter! And if it gets to confusing please let me know! I will try to fix the situation!  
> As always, enjoy :)

Although Venom was big and fast, Carnage was smaller and had better speed advantage. Being able to shoot through smaller areas and have more tendrils to cling and wrap around objects. Once Venom landed on the rooftop after leaping from the previous building Carnage saw her chance. Carnage knelt down low, almost touching the ground and sprang high into the air. Venom had just gotten ready to move again when both of Carnage’s feet landed on his head. This let Carnage launch forward and get ahead. Which was perfect for him, that meant he could get first pickings for hunting, sure she might get bullshit for it later, but usually the kill was worth it.

Carnage counted to soar through the air. She could feel the light rain that started to come in. A light drizzle in the cool San Francisco air. He took a second to take in her surroundings and maybe catch something to go after. Cars, lights, birds, dogs barking the distance, a few people close by, Riot’s annoying ass roaring. 

Carnage shot a tendril and turned a sharp left towards the sound of people. Only a few miles away, no big deal for her. Carnage continued to swing until he spotted his prey. A group of three, walking straight into an ally, idiots. Carnage perched himself on the edge of a building that perfectly over looked the three people walking in. The one on the right wore a black AC/DC shirt and ripped jeans. He probably thought he was cool or something, but to Carnage the dude looked like a fifteen year old going through a it’s-not-a-phase-mom phase. The guy next to him was wearing a “I heart Avengers” shirt (nearly made Carnage throw up in his mouth) and blue jeans. And the person behind the two, Carnage couldn’t really identity. Which was strange but all they wore was a black hoodie and sweat pants. Kinda weird but also wouldn’t matter since they would be dead soon.

 **”What are we looking at?”** Carnage whipped around to see Venom hunched over her. Riot had finally clawed his way over to the two of then and took his own gargoyle like position, observing the three below. 

**”Gee how ‘bout a heads up next time, you’ll scare away my prey!”** Carnage hissed back at his dad **.** Venom made a face that said both “oh really” and “huh”. 

**“Your prey? There’s three of them isn’t there, one for each of us,”** Venom replied. Carnage couldn’t tell if her dad was being bitch or what but either way it was annoying.

 **“ _No_ , all for _me_ and none for _you_. Go find your own prey, I found these first.” **Carnage crossed her arms and heard Venom scoff behind her. Carnage turned and began growling at her dad. **“I’m not gonna let you hog up all the food!”** In response his dad started growling back which evolved into a growling fight between the two.

 **“I am surrounded by idiots”** Riot said, he was facepalming during Carnage and Venom’s growling. **“There’s only two of them you nimrods.”**

**“Listen Mr. CEO of exploding rocket ships, I may have left Highschool early but I’m pretty sure I counted three.”**

**”Well check again, because there’s two.”** Riot pointed his long, sharp silver claw down towards the ally. She could still hear the two dudes chatting away about some hot girl or whatever. They were just standing in there, started smoking away, going on with life. And he hated to admit it but Riot was right, the third person wasn’t anywhere to be seen. They just, disappeared. 

**“That’s odd,”** Venom muttered. **“Even we saw the third person.”**

Riot was about to open his mouth when a loud screeching sound echoed through the air. The Symbiotes turned their attention back below and saw the Avenger t-shirt guy get swallowed by the shadows. The other began freaking out and started to run. Only to be grabbed by a big dark tentacle and was yanked into the shadows. The Symbiotes just stared, confused, and suddenly having a sense of danger surrounding them.

 **“What was that?”** Venom whispered peering down. Carnage was trying find the strangers only to see the cigars sitting on the ground from were they once stood.

 **“I don’t know, stay here,”** Riot leaped down before Carnage and Venom could protest. The two just watched Riot slowly approach the darkness and smell the area. Carnage could hear her dad whisper something to Eddie but he didn’t care. He was to focused on Riot searching the darkness. ****

 **“Who’s there?”** Riot shouted, **“show yourself!”** ****

Immediately multiple long black tentacles slithered out of the darkness and began to coil around each other, creating a bigger tentacle. Without warning, the large tentacle smacked Riot out of the ally. He went flying into a car and slammed into a small store, shattering the glass windows behind him. Riot just laid there dazed and people that were around began screaming and shouting.  
  
Venom roared and swung himself down towards the ally and landed with a loud thud. Carnage followed right behind, immediately turning her arms and hands into sharp blades. The giant tentacle split back into multiple tentacles and shot towards the two Symbiotes. Venom whipped out his shield and braised for the impact, he was knocked back a bit but was still standing. The tentacles that came after Carnage she was able to dodge. When Carnage landed more came after he, she sliced the once’s that came back and watched them fall to the ground. Red blood with a green shine oozed out of the sliced tentacles.

Abruptly a blood curling screech came from the ally. It definitely wasn’t human, but maybe alien. It was so loud and screechy that Venom and Carnage grabbed their heads to try to silence the splitting pain inside their heads. The shadow suddenly jumped from the top opening of the ally and disappeared into the night. But it left behind something.

The two strangers, their bodies were twisted up and deformed. Blood seeped out of there mouths and noses. Their eyes were either out of their sockets or missing. And there were gapping holes in there stomachs. Whatever that creature was it really liked organs.   
  
Carnage moved closer to the bodies while Venom ran off to see Riot. Carnage use one of his tendrils to poke the dead body of the AC/DC t-shirt guy. She was a bit surprised when the dude actually flinched a bit, like he wasn’t dead but in shock. Even though Carnage knew very clearly that he and his buddy was dead. 

**“Carnage!”** Carnage turned around to see his dad carrying Riot out of the destruction of getting smacked out of the ally. Venom was carrying Riot on his back and had some of his own tendrils wrapped around him as a support. Venom signaled upwards a bit which Carnage was pretty sure it meant “let’s get moving”. Carnage jumped to the roof of the building and began to retrace her path back home. Making sure that Venom and Riot were close behind.


	3. Eddie/Venom POV

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello again, quick note; I wasn’t super consistent with writing this chapter but hopefully it turns out good!

“So what’s wrong with rich bitch?” Cletus asked. Both he, Eddie, and the floating heads of their Symbiotes looked over at Riot in confusion. He was laying on his back, sprawled out on the floor. Riot’s tongue dangled loosely from his open and mouth. He was also making groaning sounds that sounded more irritated than in pain, which Eddie thought was some what good.

”I don’t know,” Eddie sighed. He walked over to Riot and sat down next to him. Trying to see if he could find a clue to what might be wrong with him. Eddie noticed a small spot on the side of Riots neck. A small, dark spot that was almost unnoticeable. Eddie touched it lightly and Riot aggressively twitched for a split second. 

**“It was carrying dead weight, he was completely out,”** Venom replied, his head hovering inches away from the spot the Eddie had touched. Venom was observing it closely, maybe he was trying to get some sort of scent? That’s all Eddie could guess. 

“Alright here’s the plan,” Eddie said. “I’m gonna make a phone call or two, you uh...” Eddie shifted his gaze between Riot and Cletus. “How about you try to get him un-whatever is wrong with him.”

Cletus huffed and walked over to Riot, standing over him with a puzzled look. Eddie walked over to the counter in the kitchen and grabbed his phone. Opening it to a Lock Screen of a selfie of him and Venom smiling. Eddie punched in the code and tapped on his contacts.

 _Dan? Really Eddie, we can name five other people that know about Symbiotes more than him._ Venom hissed in Eddie’s mind. Venom’s head recoiled back into Eddie while he propped his phone by his ear. He checked over by Cletus and Riot to see if there was any progress. Cletus was crouched by Riot’s head pointing at it. His face was like a child accomplishing some sort of task. Eddie noticed that Riots tongue wasn’t dangling out of his mouth. But his head was laying sideways and drool was pooling out on the floor.

“Hello?” Dan’s tired voice called out through the phone. “Eddie?”

“Hey Dan, so uh, are you busy?” Eddie asked sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck with one hand while the other held his phone. Watching Riot carefully.  
  
“Eddie it’s nearly two o’clock in the morning, what are you guys doing this time?”

“Well, uh, somethings wrong with Riot and we don’t know what to do. He’s kinda lying on my floor like a dead fish.” Eddie lightly tapped Riots shoulder with his shoe. Riot shifted his should a tiny bit which Eddie would call progress. “Um, could you maybe come over?”

”Eddie I’m a _human_ doctor, not an _alien_ doctor,” Dan yawned. “Is it extremely bad? Emergency level of care?”

”Uhh...” Eddie was still looking at Riot. He saw his leg twitch this time so maybe whatever was happening was wearing off. “I guess it could wait until morning, er, later on.”

”Ok, I’ll come over at a more convenient time, since it’s technically already morning. Good ni- morning Eddie.”Eddie tiredly sighed when Dan hung up and set his phone down on the counter. In his head, Venom was telling him to take a break and he agreed. Eddie sauntered towards the bathroom and took a long, relaxed shower. Then he slipped into a T-shirt and flannel pajama pants and curled up in his blankets. Trying to sleep away whatever thoughts he had.

* * *

 **“Eddie, Eddiiieee, your phone,”** Venom’s voice rang inside Eddie’s head. He groggily turned over and grabbed his phone off of his night stand. He didn’t know how long he slept but whoever it was better have a good reason to call. Eddie rubbed his eyes tiredly and looked at the caller ID. _Scott Lang_ , why was he calling? Scott was nice, a little weird but nice. He was the infamous Ant-Man, whom he and Eddie had a bit of rivalry a long time ago. But they were now best buds, going to Baskin Robbins here and there and stopping bad guys.

Eddie sat himself up and answered the phone. “Hello? Scott?”

“Hey Eddie, don’t freak out but-“

“Scott I’m gonna be honest,” Eddie said, “I wasn’t really paying attention until you said ‘don’t freak out but’ and now I’m wide awake. So what did you do this time?”

”Well remember my FBI agent friend? He might be coming over to your place in about fifteen-twenty minutes.”

”What!?” Eddie shouted, he could feel Venom ripple through his veins which meant that he probably startled V. “And you told him were I live!?”

“Well not exactly,” Scott said, “Look man Woo said it could a life or death situation and I panicked! And I tried to call earlier but my phone died... twenty minutes ago...”

“I don’t know if you can tell right now Scott but I’m face palming.”

”Ya I can feel your disappointment through the phone,” Scott said. “Well here’s a head up, it’s about something that happened last night and also about someone getting attacked? I don’t know, Woo didn’t give me a whole lot of details. Which is kinda weird from him so it must be really, and I mean really important. That and I guess it’s kinda not any of my business...”

Eddie started rubbing his forehead, if he could have headaches again he would be having a full migraine right now. “Scott were did you tell him to find me?”

“I told him that you would meet him on top of your apartment building. BUT I didn’t say that it was yours so I don’t think he knows that you live there.” Eddie was a little bit relieved. But still mad at Scott for not picking any other location.

“Hey so, uh I gotta go. Me and Wasp are trying to break into this bad guy facility- IM COMING!” Eddie could here something sounded like lasers and possibly some punching. So he hung up to save Scott from any calling-during-a-fight trouble. He got up and walked out his bedroom and found Riot sitting up against the back of the couch flexing his claws. Eddie was happy that Riot was getting somewhat better so he was probably going to have to tell Dan that he doesn’t need to come over.

 **“Brock,”** Eddie nearly jumped hearing Riot say his name. His voice was a bit different, it was a bit raspier. Like he needed a drink of water or something.

“Hey Riot,” Eddie smiled, “how are you feeling?”

 **“Better, still feel heavy,”** Riot replied. Eddie didn’t know exactly what that meant. Maybe Venom wasn’t to far off about the dead weight comment, maybe he was paralyzed.

“What did it feel like?” Eddie asked, “were you paralyzed?”

 **“Yes actually,”** Riot answered, **“I’m still having a hard time moving. And if I ‘go down’ then Drake would be completely limp. So _I_ am staying up.” **Riot went back to looking at his claws. Flexing them open and closed, trying to get them to move. He was trying to the same with his clawed toes. He was having more success with toes than hands.   
  
“Good,” Eddie said while clasping his hands together. “I have to meet someone on the roof...” Eddie took a minute to look around and realize someone was missing. Venom could sense it too, and it wasn’t good.“Riot, where’s Carnage?”

 **“Hm... I think he left,”** Riot said in an unsure way. Which made Eddie and Venom more worried. Even though it had been hours since they had been attacked by that _thing_ , that didn’t mean that it was still out there somewhere. And not knowing where Carnage was and doing in general was even more worrying to think about.

“You think!?” Eddie cried, trying hard not to freak out anymore.

 ** _Eddie calm down,_** Venom reassured. _**It’s probably better without her here causing any trouble.** **Now let’s go meet this FBI person.** _The way Venom said the last part sounded distasteful. But Eddie admitted that Venom was right. Carnage wouldn’t be bothering them and causing trouble. And Riot would hopefully be to busy with being back to his normal self.   
  
“Your right V,” Eddie sighed, “let’s go meet this agent.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I would like to thank BookwrymFinallyGotAnAccount for some of the clever commentary that is in the story!


	4. Carlton/Riot POV

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whoa I’m back! Just wanted to say the chapters are going to be coming a bit slower because of school, but I keep trying to get them down as soon as I can! Alright enjoy a Carlton/Riot POV for once

Riot hated this, Carlton hate this even more. They had been laying on the floor for a couple of hours and then finally managed to move to a sitting position. And the spend even more time trying to move any limb. Like Venom had said, Riot had been dead weight for his host. After being impaled by that _thing_ , Riot still wondered what it was. Symbiotes normally could easily identify anything, after all, they had millions of years worth of knowledge. But whatever attacked him, Riot didn’t know, but had a strange, old, and somehow threatening feeling about it.

 _Ok Riot,_ Carlton’s voice sighed inside of Riot, _let’s try one more time._ Riot heaved himself up, using some larger tendrils and the couch as a support. At first he was successful, then there was a loud cracking sound the Riot fell over onto his side. Riot had broken the couch in half and possibly ripped some of the cushions. They knew Eddie was going to be mad, but Cletus was going to be pissed. That was the only place were Cletus slept (when he wasn’t running around doing something stupid) since that apartment was two bedroom (and till incredibly small). 

Riot tried again, using more tendrils to push himself off of the ground and obliterated couch. There was success this time, but now he had to move, which was going to be even harder. Riot tried moving, that was complete agony. Carlton grew irritated which fed into Riot’s agitation. With a grunt he shifted from the broken couch to the table. Riot struggled to stay up and wasn’t willing to fall over again.

_Riot, if you need a break-_

**“No!”** Riot snapped, **“I, we, will be fine. The more we get moving the better chance we have at getting that thing... and seeing what Venom is doing.”** Venom and Eddie had gone to the roof about thirty minutes ago. Eddie had said something about meeting an agent, which they didn’t want to be involved with. The last thing Carlton needed was more agents, lawyers, and contractors. Since the Lids Foundation and it’s latest project went up in flames (literally) Carlton had been knocked all the way to ground zero. In fact he could technically be arrested in an instant, luckily he still had a few remaining members that helped him (only because he had threaded them). 

Riot was about to move again when he heard someone. He sounded like he was about to come to the door his voice an someone else’s too.

“I’m going to have to see this more myself.”

 **“Woo, DON’T!”**  
  
Riot moved over to the door (almost falling again) and cracked it open enough to show his menacing, snarling face, surprising the FBI agent.

“Oh sweet Christmas,” the agent commented, then he turned to Venom who was standing behind him wearing a face a disapproval. “You weren’t kidding.”

 **“** _Venom,”_ Riot growled angrily, **_“_ what are you doing and who is this?”**

 **“We’ll talk inside,”** Venom replied. Riot widened the door and stepped aside and the agent, Woo, hesitantly walked inside. Venom walked in and immediately eyed the mound that was their broken couch. **“What did you do-”**

 **** **“I’ll by you a new one, now who is this,”** Riot gestured toward Woo who stared at him wide-eyed. The agent flipped out a card from his hand and gave it to Riot.

“Agent Jimmy Woo, I’ve been called to figure out our current situation with property damages and now apparently dead bodies.”

 **“Property damages from us?”** Riot asked, the Symbiotes would admit they have destroyed things before, windows, concrete, cars. Pretty much anything that was breakable to them.   
****

“Well originally yes, but my team started to notice a small pattern.” Woo continued, “along with some property damages there are murders in the same location. Just this morning we found street footage from something breaking into a shop across from here. When we investigated the store the owner and a five customers were found dead. They also looked liked the victims from last night.”

 **“He also knows it want us because of ‘security footage’ showing us and the creature at different times,”** Venom added. **“Also we told him it wasn’t us.”** ****

Riot scoffed a little, how was Woo even supposed to “help” figure out what this threat was?  
  
“Also I was told who your, what did he say, hosts are? And one of you might know guy that my team pulled out two days ago.” Venom and Riot looked each other for a second, but Riot spoke up first, **“Who told you about or hosts?”**

“Scott Lang, you can thank me later.”

Both Symbiotes cursed and backed down, revealing Eddie and Carlton. Carlton was starting to lose balance and moved over to the chairs, offering a seat. Woo took a seat one away from Carlton and Eddie remained standing, leaning were Carlton was sitting. “Okay, do any of you know a ‘Eugene Thompson?” Woo asked looking the two of them.

“Flash? I know him, we’re close buds, oh god is he okay?!” Carlton looked at Eddie, swing that Eddie was actually very worried for this “Flash” person.   
  
“He’s fine now,” Woo assured, “but we had him moved to a temporary suite since his home had been broken into by, and I quote, ‘now way in Hell was it a person’.”

Carlton noticed that Eddie seemed a little more happy, but still uneasy about his friend. After talking to Woo and discussed when or whether they should meet again about their “situation” and what the three of them should keep to themselves, Woo left. When Eddie showed him out Carlton asked “who’s is Eugene Thompson.”

“Oh Flash? He’s, uh, he’s my ex boyfriend.”

”Really?” Carlton was genuinely surprised, he thought that the only two people that could stand Eddie were Anne Weying and Venom (well he also guessed Dan Lewis too). “When did you two become a couple?”

“A bit before and also during college,” Eddie replied, “we actually we’re a couple for a long time, but he joined the military and communication got hard. And he was worried about me getting hurt so we just... kinda ended.” Eddie seemed to be a bit sad, talking about ending his relationship with Flash, it made Carlton feel kinda bad. Until he remembered that Eddie and Venom single handedly destroyed his entire job.

”Well, if it makes you feel better, we can go see him,” Carlton mumbled. He saw Eddie smile warmly at him. “But let’s find Cletus, wherever the Hell he’s at.” He looked out the window, a small bit of hope of Carnage being nearby so Riot and Venom could strangle him and throw Carnage into the back of Carltons car. Finally he pulled out his phone, unlocked it, and went into his contacts to find Cletus. His phone rang a few times until he finally picked up.

“Hello?”

“Cletus were are you?” Carlton asked.

“Well let’s see, I’m on the corner of ‘none of your business’ and ‘why do you care’.”

Carlton was just wondering the same thing before Eddie had spoken up “Cletus come back to the apartment, we have to go see someone and from past experience leaving you alone for a day is a bad idea.”

“But havin a blast by myself!” Carlton heard a bunch of screaming through the phone which confirmed that he was indeed murdering people. “Besides what if I don’t want to meet the other person. I kinda have my have my hands full.”

“Carnage,” Carlton snarled, “if you do not get your red dumbass here I’ll **hunt you down AND GUT YOU LIKE A FISH!”** There was a small moment of silence between them before Carnage said “fine, give me five minutes.”

 **“You have two,”** Carlton hung up before Carnage would fight back and tuned to Eddie. **“Shall I get the car started?”**

“Uh, I’ll-I got it, also your Riot is showing,” Eddie took the keys and headed out the door. Carlton did notice that some of Riots features (mainly the eyes and teeth) had been showing. But Riot had perfectly taken care of it.

 _You should be good enough to walk._ Riot said, his voice echoing bin his skull, **_let’s meet him down there._**

“Good idea,” Carlton replied. He grabbed his phone and his wallet, which was close by. Heading down the apartment floors stairs to meet Eddie. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No guys I’m not trying to Jimmy Wooed you, just adding an interesting character that also shows up in San Francisco


	5. Carlton/Riot POV

Carlton stepped out of his black Discovery Ranger from the passenger side. He looked over at Eddie who had stepped out of the driver’s side. They were at a small coffee shop downtown, parked by the side and in the back of the building. Eddie’s friend, Flash, wanted to be somewhere more ‘comfortable’. Apparently, he didn’t like being in a suite which Carlton thought was a downgrade, but it was probably because he missed his own home. 

Eddie turned to Carlton as they walked in front of the car. “Okay, I’ll go inside, you can wait in the car if you want…” For some reason, Eddie seemed a bit on edge. Perhaps he was still worried, or maybe he hadn’t seen his friend, Flash, in a long time. After all, Eddie did say that Flash was his ex, maybe they had a fight and broke up. 

“Eddie I’ll join you inside,” Carlton said as he gestured to the building. “I’ll wait out here for Cletus and you head inside and meet Flash.” He smiled at Eddie, trying to be more friendly with him since there was something clearly going on.

“Oh, uh, okay, I’ll just be inside.” Eddie headed up the parking lot and turned the corner, his leather jacket shining as it disappeared. Carlton leaned up against the car, facing the wall of the building. He unlocked his phone and checked the lock screen. No notifications, it was an impulse that he had grown over the years to be constantly checking his phone for notifications. But old habits still didn’t die. 

Suddenly through the reflection of the phone screen, Carlton saw a red and black blur land with a loud thud ontop of his car. Carlton turned to look up at sharp, menacing, but bored white eyes staring down at him. 

**_Took him long enough_ ** , Riot said in Carlton’s head. His heavy, gravelly voice ringing through his skull. 

“Cletus, happy to see that you finally arrived,” Calton said, clasping his hands together. 

**“Yeah, why are we here again? And where’s Eddie?”** Carnage stood up from her perched spot on the car and started looking around. 

“I’ll tell you, now get off my car. And you better not have dented it.” Carnage scoffed and stepped off the edge of the car, landing smoothly on the cement, like he was walking down a set of stairs. Carnage pulled back and revealed Cletus, who was wearing the stupidest get-up Carlton had ever seen. Orange and red Hawaiian shirt with ripped jeans and white sneakers. Carlton would’ve shoved him in the car if he had the chance.

Carlton grabbed Cletus by the wrist and pulled him along, turning the corner and pushing through the glass doors of the coffee shop. Carlton immediately spotted Eddie in Flash at a table that was on the left side and against the wall. Should be perfectly discrete. Carlton kept his head down and Cletus just avoided eye contact until they finally made it to the table.

“Oh, hey you’re here!” Eddie said after turning around, looking very relieved and pleased. “Flash this is… Drake and Kasady my roommates, guys this is Flash.”

**_Smooth Brock, smooth,_ ** Riot uttered inside. 

“Nice to meet you,” Flash said. Flash was a very built man, with blonde hair and green eyes. He wore a camo shirt with dog tags and black shorts. He also had prosthetic legs where his calves would’ve been. That was the biggest sign that Flash was a war veteran, at least he thought. 

“Pleasure to meet you too,” Carlton said, shaking Flash’s hand, the two shared a firm handshake, and after that Carlton grabbed two chairs from an empty table while Cletus took his turns shaking hands. Carlton placed his chair next to Eddie and Cletus put his chair in between Carlton and Flash. 

“Well, Flash I must say it is interesting to meet another person who can actually tolerate Eddie,” Carlton said. Eddie side-eyed him and Flash chuckled. 

“Anyways,” Eddie said, trying to bring the topic back, “Flash about what happened…” Flash’s expression quickly changed from happy and smiling to being unnerved. Carlton looked over at Eddie for a second to see that his expression had changed as well, he looked a bit sad. Carlton guessed that he didn’t want to talk about either. 

“Well, I will say that I’ve had some pretty scary experiences,” Flash stated, “but the night I was attacked by... I don’t even know what it is.” Flash looked deeply at them, hoping that they would have the answers. Eddie was worried, Cletus was confused, and Carlton was both. But nonetheless, they needed to find out more. 

“Could, you tell us a bit about  _ it _ ,” Carlton asked, leaning in a bit, but trying to pressurize Flash, he needed to what the creature was with making Flash even more uncomfortable, which meant putting his old Life Foundation skills to use. 

“Well first I heard one of my windows being broken in my living room, and I was in my bedroom at the time. So I grabbed my gun from my safe-”

“Woah Woah Woah, you sleep with a gun?” Cletus commented, completely stopping the story. Making Eddie and Carlton very annoyed.

Flash smiled a bit at Cletus. “Of course, I am an ex-veteran who lives in San Francisco and thought my house was broken into. Also, I have legal documents that allow me to own one.” Flash took a quick sip from his ice water that was sitting on the table and continued. “Anyways, I went into the living room, tried looking for someone and no one was there. So I looked around the house a bit and noticed that something was, off. There was this cabinet by my dining table, one that I’ve never seen or even owned before. Then it-it just transformed in front of me.” 

“Transformed?” Eddie repeated, he and Carlton were taking mental notes on what Flash had been describing the creature as.

“Yeah, it changed from the really ugly cabinet to a giant creature with giant teeth, curled horns, and I think tentacles.”

**_Transformation and the tentacles?_ ** Riot observed,  **_Carlton have him keep him talking.  
_ **

“Flash, what else did you notice about it?” Carlton wondered, catching Flash’s attention again. Flash nodded and went on.

“Yeah sure, this thing was drooling everywhere. I also had these hard shells, at least I think they were shells, along its back. Its arms were long and had these really, really sharp claws. Oh, it also had a bunch of hair or fur around the rest of its body.” Flash’s phone buzzed on the table, he grabbed it and checked the screen. “Oh shoot I gotta go, I’m supposed to meet this guy for the damages.”

“Yeah, we should get going too, right Drake?” Eddie asked, Carlton didn’t know what he meant at first until he saw that some people were staring at them. Which was definitely a cue to get going. 

“Yes we should, we have some errands to run. It was nice talking to you Flash, hope things go well for you.” Carlton had to restrain himself from saying ‘have a nice life’, which would’ve completely given himself away. Eddie and Carlton had put the chair back to its original spots. Before Eddie could walk away and wave Flash had grabbed him and whispered something that Carlton couldn’t really hear. But after Flash had whispered to him he kissed Eddie on the cheek. When they walked out of the coffee shop, Flash had turned the other way and waved as he left.

Carlton nudged Eddie in the shoulder a bit, “so what was that about?”

“Yeah Eddie, you got something going on now?” Cletus asked smirking at Eddie, and Eddie started blushing more. 

**_As grateful as I am about Eddie’s “love life”, I know what the creature is. Let’s get in the car and get back home, or at least somewhere with better cover._ **

“Alright, Riot says we need to head home, or just somewhere not in the open.” 

“Well good luck with that because your cars leaking,” Cletus pointed to Carlton’s car and he spotted a strange liquid dripping from underneath it, making a stream that went underneath another car. 

Carlton cursed and marched over to his car, immediately checking underneath it. 

**_Carlton your car isn’t leaking its-_ **

Abruptly the car next to them began to grow. Changing its size and mass, long stick-like arms extended from its body, with tentacles and hair flowing out. Sharp teeth clacked together with thick, slimy drool dripping from its mouth. Its curled horns and sharp eyes staring down the hosts menacingly and in a hungry manner. The gigantic beast loomed over them, casting a thin, long shadow over Carlton, Eddie, and Cletus.

**_It’s here,_ ** Riot uttered, sounding very scared,  **_the xenopahge._ **

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I had to rewerite this chapter multiple times because AO3 wouldn’t save lol, also wow I brining an old comic villain (ish) back.


End file.
